3 Best/Worst Things About Houston? (Galveston, Van: apartment, home, living in)

[jfre81]

Originally Posted by EugeneBKLYN

Relax, Big Tex.
If you'd see the cost of living over here, you wouldn't blame us.

I don't blame anyone for looking....come down and see if it's for you, if you want.

[KerrTown]

Originally Posted by mjewell

Too much concrete

We are nowhere near Manhattan, the Northside of Chicago, or West L.A. I saw more concrete in West L.A. than in most parts of Houston.

I'm guessing you don't like the Midtown or Northside look.

[jfre81]

More parkland and greenery is helping out a lot.

Remember that many people's concepts of Houston are based on visits 10-20 years old, particularly in the mid-80s to early 90s when the local economy was depressed (oil bust) and this city honestly sucked.

[bostoner]

Originally Posted by jfre81

More parkland and greenery is helping out a lot.

Remember that many people's concepts of Houston are based on visits 10-20 years old, particularly in the mid-80s to early 90s when the local economy was depressed (oil bust) and this city honestly sucked.

This is true.

Parts of Houston do have too much concrete, but many parts are quite lush with greenery. There's so much unidentified flora in my backyard!

Working in the Heights, I often see out-of-state and international visitors to Houston who express being pleasantly surprised by their trips here; it's nothing like they'd imagined. One was a patient at M.D. Anderson whose cancer was in remission. Before trips here for her treatments, she'd had a negative impression of Houston because she had only heard horror stories about it from her husband's business trips here in the early 80's. They did a lot of shopping and eating and a tad bit of exploring while they were here. The wife was pleasantly surprised and the husband observed the city has come a LONG way since the 80's, mostly for the better.

Houston is far from perfect, but it's far from as terrible as people seem to think, too!

Random thoughts on Houston's image/perception problems: I think one of Houston's problems is it has been so slow to agree on what aspects of the city to promote. There are about three or four things I can think of that would be neat to capitalize on as touristy things somewhat unique to Houston, but people are only just now starting to concerned about this "quality of life" image/perception stuff... like, okay, so we're "Energy Capital of the World"? So what? What's that mean? Couldn't that mean something? Like, those movies at the HMNS are certainly a step in the right direction, but beyond that, what is there around the city to suggest we're an energy capital?? I guess we've had too many lame duck mayors and uninspired PR people working for the city. You can say what you want about Bill White, but he's been our most visionary mayor in a while. Another problem is people come here and don't know where to go, what to do. Point in fact: our Visitor Center is TOTALLY hidden. I didn't even know where it was till two months ago! Houston really needs to be more user-friendly! Providing people with guidebooks and pamphlets ain't user-friendly! Encouraging people to visit downtown and immediately west of downtown in the Inner Loop areas like Midtown/Montrose/Medical Center/Museum District/Upper Kirby/Rice Village/Uptown/"Chinatown" (I'm looking at you, WYSIWYG ) areas would help a ton; all most people think of when they think about Houston is "refineries" and "Ship Channel". We need to let folks know Houston ain't Baytown and Pasadena! There's some touristy stuff to see and do here, but we are terrible at promoting it and terrible at providing easy access to it. I guess this is where the lack of rail comes into play. I would really *love* more of a partnership with the Bay Area and Galveston. Rail here would go a loooong way; if nothing else, a rail line to Galveston should've been done eons ago. Seems like we're just really missing the boat, so to speak, on that. Hmm, so yeah, the number one problem seems to be the lack of efficient mass transit. Big surprise! I just see soooo many opportunities for a Houston-Galveston partnership, and I have no idea why not much has been done with it. Galveston has languished for so long economically; sure, lots of Houstonians and Texans visit, but think of how soooo many more people who're visiting Houston could/would, IF they had the time, but don't or can't... it could really come into its own again with a mutually beneficial relationship... kinda like... dare I say it? Dallas and Ft. Worth have, only way better, of course. Galveston is a mini-New Orleans, without the music (unfortunately), waiting to happen...

[jfre81]

The best thing that has changed since the 1980s is that since the oil bust, Houston has aggressively taken steps to diversify its industry. Living high on the hog while making money in just one sector of the economy was a recipe for disaster, and that's why Houston '07 is a much better place than Houston '87, even if it sits on the same ground and the weather is still what it is.

[knowledgedropper]

Originally Posted by JJP

Best:
- great big-city amenities (culture/arts, restaurants)
- diversity (of people and of things to do)
- closeness to the beach and mild winters

Worst:
- city is always getting bashed/bad publicity, and rarely recognized for its positives
- disregard for history/ historic buildings, and too many billboards
- violent crime due to too many cheap apartment complexes

Houston is not close to the beach. It's the equivalent of saying Palmdale,Ca or Riverside,Ca are close to the beaches in Socal--they're not!!! just like Houston isn't close to the Gulf.

Question of the day, why are Houstonians always seemingly worried about Hurricanes?? I would think that having a 50-60mile buffer from the gulf would be a sufficient barrier. Why doesn't Houston attempt to fix it's drainage system, it seems to flood there constantly--induced by the slightest bit of rain.

Finally, STOP acting as if Houston were a coastal town. It's a flat inland city--always wishing it were Galveston! LOL

[jfre81]

Is Galveston Bay visible on the map you're using? What about the bayous? That is not protected by the storm surge.

A major hurricane would do more damage to the port and the industrial areas surrounding it than anything else (oh, and Clear Lake may not look pretty afterward) but in downtown they will pump the water out and clean up the broken glass all over the place and business will go on, just like after Alicia and Allison.

Since we're on the subject of hurricanes, I'm glad I do not live in Galveston. I'm actually glad of that for a number of reasons, but that's just one.

[groens]

ditto, jfre81. i was here & remember quite well hurricane alicia-- during alicia we had about 15 tornados just in our zip code, and there were fallen trees EVERYWHERE, no electricity for a couple of weeks, & the entire neighbourhood looked like a disaster area, and that was NORTH of downtown in oak forest/garden oaks.
not to mention that i am in a hurricane evacuation zone, here in houston, southeast of downtown, just inside the loop (not far from U of H central campus). my house is in a 500 yr flood plain, & did not flood, at all, during Allison... but we are at risk for a storm surge from a large hurricane due to our proximity to the ship channel.
i guess only someone unfamiliar with the layout of houston & it's proximity to bodies of water & waterways would criticise our "perceived" succeptibility to storm surges & impact of hurricanes. one could have easily said the same about New Orleans regarding their "apparent" distance from the gulf, without taking other risks into account.

[EugeneBKLYN]

I wanna throw in a question here...

Does Houston have those huge waterbugs, which are common all along the eastern seaboard?

[jfre81]

It's coastal and it's humid, so yeah, they're here.

FWIW, I haven't seen a cockroach in my apartment in the six months I've been here, despite having a couple of cats who like to spill their food out of their bowls and bat it around and under the fridge, stove or whatever where I can't much pick it up.